Recommendations for adding metadata to maps in SDL/XMetal?

Our writers currently check out maps from SDL using XmetaL 12 and manually type in attribute value in the <othermeta> element for product name, release number, and so on. This a tedious and error-prone process. Is it possible to use drop-down menus with pre-populated values for the product name or release number via XmetaL/SDL Integration? Many of these same metadata values for product/release are already in our SDL system in the release values list. I'm curious what options people use for entering metadata in their maps particularly if there are drop-down lists that can be used somehow.

Screenshot of Trados Studio showing a draft document titled 'Ruckus Fastrion Software Upgrade Guide, 08.0.90' with metadata fields for product-release, firmware-release, content-type, task, and bundle filled with pre-populated values.

<topicmeta>
  <othermeta name="product-release "content="icx7150,icx7250,icx7450,icx7650,icx7750,icx7850" />
  <othermeta name="firmware-release" content="fi-08.0.90" />
  <othermeta name="task " content="install-upgrade" />
   .
   .
   .
</topicmeta>



Generated Image Alt-Text
[edited by: Trados AI at 6:38 AM (GMT 0) on 5 Mar 2024]
emoji
Parents Reply Children
  • Hello,

    We use <othermeta> within the <topicmeta> field only in our book-level-maps. This metadata contains information such as the publication part number, date, pdf url, software release, content type, firmware release, etc. These metadata fields are used in the PDF/HTML output as either rendered elements in the output (for example the publication date and part number are printed on the cover page and footers), or as metadata passed to our web publishing system for classification and filtering purposes (software name, release number, firwware name, release number, content type, etc).

    As noted this information is manually set at the moment via the editor, then picked up by the DITA-OT plugins to render output in PDF/HTML or web format.

    Regards,
    Ryan